2011 was the year of the protester. But instead of discussing the bored trustafarians who 'occupied' the world lest they be denied something for the first time in their lives, I'd like to focus on the Arab Spring. How did it happen? And what can we as marketers learn?

Population growth, rapid urbanisation, adoption of new technologies, unlocking of abundant resources and the deepening of the financial sector are the five major trends that are set to drive Africa's economic growth, Simon Freemantle, Standard Bank Africa senior analyst, told a media roundtable in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday, Thursday 6 October 2011.

Western Union, the multinational company specialised in money transfer, is celebrating its 160th anniversary by launching a global online network - a Facebook-linked platform meant to hunt for the most networked person in the world. The South African launch took place yesterday, Thursday 4 August 2011, in Rosebank simultaneously with Ghana, Kenya and Morocco.

Neo@Ogilvy's global CEO, New-York based Nasreen Madhany, has been visiting South Africa for a corporate summit, where she talked up the role emerging markets will play in the future profitability of her company.

The events and developments of the past six months in Africa have demonstrated that the rise of social media has not only revolutionised the business environment, but also redefined the political scene by shaking the foundation of dictatorship, lack of service delivery and corruption for the first time since the dawn of independences.

"African people - like me - are completely disillusioned with the performance of their leaders because of what they have done and what they are doing, and for me these people should not be called leaders, but rather the elite," Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki and chairman of the SA Institute of International Affairs, said, speaking at the CNN-MultiChoice media forum currently taking place in Bryanston, Johannesburg, on Friday, 24 June 2011.

South Africa has emerged as the most valuable nation brand on the African continent in 2011, scoring a value of US$149.7 billion, distantly followed by Egypt (US$79.2 billion) and Nigeria (US$56 billion) in third place, while MTN is voted Africa's most valuable corporate brand, according to a UK-based Brand Finance study's findings released today, Wednesday 25 May 2011, in Johannesburg by the Brand Leadership Academy.

A billion Africans and 50 million bank accounts. In South Africa, credit cards are used by only 16.5% of the population (2008). No African country comes close to 1% of total retail spend spent online - the magic figure which constitutes the tipping point for digital retail growth. No wonder, then, that the ecommerce market in Africa hasn't bloomed.

As concern mounts over the fate of Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer missing in Libya alongside two US journalists and one Spanish photographer, the Presidency said yesterday, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, that President Jacob Zuma has been briefed on the attempts made by the SA mission in Libya to locate Hammerl. Reports from Washington DC also suggest that the White House is very concerned about their well-being and it is trying hard to assist them in any way it can.

A global study conducted by TNS Research Surveys shows that South Africans' unconditional love for handsets - more than content as it is in developed markets - is beginning to change and will even shift faster as bandwidth improves, and as cheaper smartphones appear on the market - probably from China.

The fundamental reason that many African governments ban and harass the media has more to do with personal connotations than other issues, Kenya's Henry Maina, director of Article 19 Eastern Africa, told delegates at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference last week in Johannesburg.

There is some substantiated regulation of what the media can do and what it cannot do, but the balance must be struck between what the law has prescribed and freedom of expression, Prof Dario Milo, Wits University media law visiting professor and Webber & Wentzel partner, said last week in Johannesburg at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference.

As governments across the African continent come under increasing pressure from critical media, 'vulture' ruling parties believe the only way to deal with this 'surrogate opposition' is to regulate it through statutory mechanisms that will eventually dent its wayward reporting. But some African voices of reason, such as Zambia's Fred M'membe, argue that the restriction of good media never produces good media.

Due to the lack of a strong and united political opposition, the media in Africa, at least those that are critical of government policies, becomes a powerful force called a surrogate opposition, Prof Tawana Kupe, dean of faculty of humanities at Wits University, said this week in Johannesburg.

Until 1992, journalists and editors in Ghana, and the independent media in general, have suffered a lot at the hands of undemocratic regimes, which cracked down on critical reporting and imposed strict restrictions limiting media freedom. As a new, liberal constitution was being written in 1992, media activists came out guns blazing, demanding that media suffering end and reporting become free. [view twitterfall]

The Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists is now accepting applications from professional journalists from developing countries for its 2011 Fellowship Program. The application deadline is 6 April 2011.

As the independent media in Africa is engaged in a fierce battle against repressive and not-so-democratic governments keen to sweep their corrupt wrongdoings under the carpet, the issue of self-regulation has become almost like a daily bread in many parts of the continent. [view twitterfall]

The right of access to information is being hampered in many parts of the world, especially in Africa, by government officials wary of journalists' desire to 'embarrass' them, and the state's 'insincere' reason of hiding behind the issue of national security. This emerged today, Wednesday, 9 March 2011, at the Regulations and Rights media conference at Wits University in Johannesburg. [view twitterfall]

The state of education in many parts of the world and Africa, especially in zones in conflict, is appalling, miserable and in bad shape, according to a 2011 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report set to be released today, Tuesday, 1 March 2011 in New York.

The problem that we face in South African commerce right now is that very few top CEOs know what SEO, or what SEM marketing entails. Some might say, "well that's because it's not important, and how can it result in sales?" Hmmm, this attitude would make you look foolish in front of a company (competitor) that has grasped the potential which Google, Yahoo and other search engines present.

Google Instant search is annoying for some, and useful to others. One fact does remain - it runs on the same search engine and the search results are exactly the same. The difference it brings is in how the user reacts to the results they see.

Nokia's Defend Your Street (DYS) is a “street” football implementation program that connects Nigerian youth to their dreams, encourages them to focus on their goals and desires - and helps them stay at the top of their game.